Somebody like you.

Sitting in the dark theatre I felt like a real person for the first time in so long. I was going to a movie on a Friday night with an old, dear friend and my sister. A great combo and little piece of reality. I realized that my life for the past little while had revolved around school 100%, which is great but a little dose of reality was nice last night.

That being said we saw Moneyball. My economics prof recommended it and I was intrigued. For a man who is both on Obama’s economic council and watches Jersey Shore I was interested in his movie recommendation.  It was great. I felt like it was a $12.99 recap of my MBA thus far. I was happily surprised to see aspects of many of our core areas. The significance of statistics, economics, finance, entrepreneurship and a whole lot of freaking strategy. What stood out for me the most brought me back to our OBHR classes. Leadership. Culture. People Development. Change Management. What stood out for me was a leader who saw in people what others did not necessarily see and brought out greatness in them. Empowering them. Changing with them in the times that they needed that support. To be honest this is why I love sports movies, this is why I love sports. There is something about a coach or a teammate that brings greatness out in his or her people. Especially when those people are underdogs. I feel like those players, like the econ major from Yale in the movie. Yes, I bring something to the table but it took someone, a few people, to tell me that that something was valuable, that it was a contribution, for me to really step up and take it on. To play on the field instead of sitting in the stands.

Like everything in life these moments were not grand gestures, out pouring of gratitude. They were subtle but powerful. Moments when my dear girl told me that I ‘got’ accounting. Moments when a new friend, smart, thoughtful and likely unaware of the significance of his leadership, mentioned that I was creative, smart, or contributing. This is leadership at its finest. The ability to see greatness in others, draw it out of them and empower their contribution.

There is one scene in the movie where one player asks a new first basemen what his greatest fear in the game was. He replied “that a baseball will come anywhere near me.” The other man laughed and then realized the first baseman wasn’t kidding. This is just how I felt at first, how I still feel sometimes. Like someone is going to figure it all out, that maybe what they saw just isn’t there. This isn’t the case. Just believe the good press and take the bad with a grain of salt. Oh, and believe your econ profs when they make a movie recommendation, likely they are way smarter than you anyway.